Barcelona have been met with widespread ridicule by witty football fans online after the Spanish giants announced they will wear a special shirt honouring Drake against Real Madrid in Sunday's El Clasico.
The one-off jersey, which will feature the Canadian rapper's OVO owl logo after he became the first artist to surpass 50 billion streams on Spotify, is made possible by the lucrative agreement the club signed with the music streaming company earlier this year. Drake's logo will replaced Spotify's own branding for the top of the table showdown with Los Blancos.
But the move has been instantly shot down by ripped to shreds by hilarious fans, who have ruthlessly mocked the quirky initiative.
After it was quickly pointed out that the new logo on the one-off shirt is strikingly similar to the old Sheffield Wednesday badge, numerous fans have quipped that the League One outfit were now sponsoring the Spanish giants.
One fan cheekily linked the logo to Barcelona 's current financial plight by tweeting: "You know times are hard for Barcelona when Sheffield Wednesday are sponsoring them," while another commended the League One outfit for stepping in to sponsor Xavi Hernandez's side at a difficult time.
As if that wasn't humiliating enough, fans also immediately reignited the infamous 'Drake curse' ahead of the match. The four-time Grammy Award winner has been pictured with various sporting stars and teams before big events over the years - and more often than not, they have ended up losing shortly after being snapped with the hip-hop star.
A fan tweeted: "Barcelona already lost the El Classico before kicking a ball. Nobody told them about the drake curse?" Others were already expecting the worst. One despondent fan tweeted: "No no no.. NOT THE DRAKE CURSE PLEASE NO!"
Join the debate! What do you make of Barcelona's one-off Drake shirt? Let us know here.
Barcelona fans can relax though; Drake is not set to become a permanent fixture on the club's jerseys - regardless of Sunday's result. There are, however, likely to be further one-off link-up's over the course of the season due to the partnership between the two clubs.
In a statement, Barcelona said: "On October 16, instead of seeing the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service logo on the front of the Barça jersey, those watching the game against Real Madrid will see the silhouette of an owl - the logo of the Canadian singer’s brand.
"Spotify has given this privileged space on the jersey as part of the framework of the partnership with the Club, just one of the actions that both brands are putting into place to offer innovative experiences for football fans, as well as helping to reach new audiences through music.
"As was announced when the agreement was ratified, this type of exchange on the front of the jersey is scheduled to happen more as the season progresses."
